Contact: Emily Zadny, Director of Athletic Communications, 563-588-7970

Box Score vs. Carleton
Box Score vs. St. Olaf

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (Sept. 22, 2019) – The Loras College women's volleyball team made swift work of the Carleton College (4-8) Knights on Saturday at the Mabel Lee Tournament, hosted by Coe College, claiming a 3-0 win before ultimately surrendering a hard-fought five-set battle against a talented St. Olaf College (14-2) squad.

Against Carleton, the Duhawks pulled away from the Knights for a 14-10 lead following a service ace from Moira Mixan and a kill from Kendra Cave. Cave and Kelly Boge each added a kill after Carleton called a timeout to extend the lead and force another timeout after Kayla Kinney served up an ace to make the score 25-16. The Knights tried to capitalize on an error by the Duhawks to cut the score 21-18, but a two kills from cave and a block from Boge and Lyndsi Wilgenbusch gave Loras a 1-0 lead with a  25-18 first set win.

The second set started out as a hotly contested battle with the team neck and neck for the opening 16 points. A kill from Boge followed closely by two from Kinney gave the Duhawks the momentum for a six-point run and a 14-8 lead. Loras arrived at set point following  efficient hitting by the Duhawks and a massive block from Jackie Alberto, Wilgenbusch and Cave, but the Knights rattled off seven straight points to hold Loras at set point and cut the score 24-22. On Carleton's Jancyn Appel's seventh serve, Roling connected with Cave who came up for the kill to seal the second set, 25-22.

It was a lopsided affair in the third set as the Duhawks commanded the court, coming to a 15-7 lead early in the set. Loras saw multiple players come off the bench to make an impact including kills from Jade Casper and Molly Chapman and solid defensive efforts at the net and serve receive from Katie Carpenter and April Grostic. The Duhawks had a match-high .448 hitting percentage, leading to a 25-12 rout of the Knights to win the match in three.

In the second match against St. Olaf, Loras was forced to play catch up early as the Oles took an 11-3 lead and forced the Duhawks to call a timeout. Loras scored four straight off a service error by St. Olaf and kills by Boge and Cave and even rallied back later in the set with kills from Abby Allgeyer, but the Oles held on for the 25-19 win.

Loras recovered in the second set, taking an 11-7 lead following kills by Kinney and Allgeyer and stellar serving from Roling. The closest St. Olaf would come to the lead would be a one-point deficit after three straight points late in the set, but Kinney and Allgeyer had other plans on offense, hammering in a combined four kills for the final six points of the set to win 25-21.

The Duhawks kept the match interesting in the third set, trading points with the Oles until three straight kills from Alberto, Kinney and Allgeyer put Loras ahead 14-12. The Oles took a brief 17-16 lead but Loras reclaimed it, forcing St. Olaf to commit five attacking errors on a six point, resulting in a 25-21 win for the Duhawks. Unfortunately, Loras struggled in the fourth set, mustering a .031 hitting percentage and only eight kills, surrendering a 25-18 loss to force a fifth set.

Going into the fifth set, Loras had a 3-0 winning record for five-set matches this season and came out looking to keep that statistic unblemished. Both teams traded points until Cave and Kinney came up with two kills and Cave served up an ace for an 11-9 lead. A block from Kinney and Alberto put the Duhawks at match point, 14-13, but an unfortunate attacking error gave the ball back to the Oles where Katelyn Lannom served up back-to-back aces to win the set, 16-14 for St. Olaf.

Kinney tallied 26 kills between the two matches, playing in all eight sets, as well as 22 digs, five blocks, and two aces. Allgeyer and Boge both posted double-digits kills against St. Olaf while Mixan and Cave both added four aces. Krystal Tranel had 29 total digs and Alberto had five blocks alongside Kinney.

Loras (12-4) hosts its first American Rivers Conference (A-R-C) match on Tuesday, Sept. 24, welcoming the Kohawks from Coe College to Lillis Court. Action begins at 7:30 p.m. and links to live in-match coverage can be found HERE.